"Earn The Baggy Green": Michael Hussey Rejects Rush To Replace Australia's Veterans

Former Australian cricketer Michael Hussey has weighed in on calls for more young talent to be included in an ageing Australian side, saying Test cricket is not a format in which to "blood someone" but one that requires players to earn the prestigious Baggy Green cap. He also said that amid the hype surrounding young players after a few good innings, he wants to see a consistent body of work before they are considered for selection. The discussion around the Australian team's age and form has only intensified, as the playing XIs in the Durban and St George's Park Tests did not feature a single player under the age of 30. Ahead of the final day of the second Test, Australia are just six wickets away from an embarrassing innings defeat that would level the series.

The inconsistent form of batters, particularly Marnus Labuschagne, and the advancing age of the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, have raised concerns in Australian cricket circles about the team's future beyond the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship cycle.

Speaking to Fox Sports, Hussey, one of cricket's most notable late bloomers, who made his international debut at 28 and earned his maiden Test cap at 30, said: "It is all good and well saying get rid of the 30-plus guys, but who are you going to bring in? I have always been a believer that you do not just blood someone in Test match cricket. They need to have earned that spot."

Hussey also said that if someone is being picked for Test cricket simply to find out whether they are good enough, they are being selected for the wrong reasons. Instead, the key question should be whether they can help win matches from the outset.

"If you have got players that are absolutely banging the door down at the level below and putting enormous pressure on, then yeah, definitely (make changes). But if that pressure has not come consistently from below, then no, I would not be making changes just for the sake of it because someone's 33 years of age," he said.

"I think there are probably only one or two players who are actually at retirement age, in the late 30s. The rest, I think, still have plenty of good cricket ahead of them," he added.

Having last scored a Test century during the 2023 Ashes tour of the UK, Labuschagne has gone 25 Tests without a hundred. During that period, he has amassed 1,090 runs in 47 innings at an average of 25.34, with nine fifties and a highest score of 90.

On the South Africa tour, he has managed scores of 37, 37, 14 and 39.

Recently, a New South Wales opener scored 253, the first Sheffield Shield double century in almost 1,000 days, while young opener Sam Konstas also registered a Shield century after returning from an Australia A tour of India.

While Hussey welcomed those performances, he stressed the importance of a more sustained body of work, something he believes discarded opener Nathan McSweeney and Kurtis Patterson have produced.

"It is not just one innings. Ollie Davies, that is one innings that he has done that," Hussey said.

"We want to see consistent, high-level performances. It was really pleasing to see Sam Konstas score two really good scores in Perth in the recent Shield game. I think he is someone who definitely has to be on the radar, and he is starting to build a body of work."

"I think McSweeney has definitely put together a body of work over a period of time, whether that be for South Australia or Australia A. And I think Kurtis Patterson certainly has. So there are some players there who are definitely mounting a case and putting pressure on those above."

"But no, I do not want to see just one innings here or there. I want to see a body of work," he signed off.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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